Kerry Beck's Blog

Before Christmas I started using a strategy to organize my home.  Each afternoon I set the timer for 15 minutes and started working on a project.

• Why 15 minutes?
• Why in the afternoon?

I am often tired in the afternoon and don’t have the “thinking” capacity to work or create.  So, the afternoon is a perfect time to do some mindless activity…like organize a room, clean a closet, sort through stacks of papers.

When I get a chance, I set the kitchen timer for 15 minutes and head to my project.  By setting the time, I have a deadline and work as quickly as possible to finish my task.

What have I done in 15 minutes?

What can “you” get done in 15 minutes?

1. Organized a guest bedroom, clearing out all boxes and putting all stacks of paper in its proper place
2. Organize & wrap Christmas gifts
3. Clean the kitchen counters
4. Clean my desk
5. Unload the dishwasher, Reload the dishwasher
6. Fold the laundry
7. Clean the shelf above our staircase
8. Organize my fabric by color-into rubbermaid boxes
9. Organize stacks of magazines around the house into crates. I found empty crates in our garage & put them in our extra room upstairs. I have baskets & stacks of old magazines & sorted through them, keeping some & giving away others to our public library.
10. Clean a bathroom
11. Put the loose books around my house back on the right bookshelf
12. Iron 2 shirts
13. Iron napkins, placemats
14. Reorganize my cloth napkins & tablecloths
15. Move all my old videos into an old dresser in our TV room (Yes, I still have a VCR so I can watch some old videos)
16. Collect all cassettes & videos we need to take to Half Price Books
17. Clean the drawer under the kitchen telephone…we all have that drawer
18. Put all my ribbon rolls on a dowel and hang
19. Organize my kid books so I can loan them to young homeschooling moms
20. Organize old curriculum that I’m saving for my kids or can loan
21. Dust all picture frames
22. Dust living room & dining room
23. Collect all single sheets of scrapbooking paper and put in file according to color
24. Clean desk drawer and use silverware tray to put back everything
25. Collect office supplies and put in rubbermaid box with label of what’s inside.
26. Collect all miscellaneous candles and put in rubbermaid boxes according to size or color
27. Organize drawer of kitchen towels, washcloths &/or hot mitts
28. Organize kitchen cabinets of cups, glasses, mugs
29. Organize kitchen cabinet of party serving dishes
30. Clean my bedroom dresser top (yes, mine is the messiest in our room)
31. Clean Steve’s dresser & bedside tables
32. Clean my closet shelves
33. Organize my shoes
34. Find all clothes hanging in my closet that I haven’t worn the last year. Put in bag to donate.
35. Put clean sheets on all beds
36. Organize all video games

What project can you do in 15 minutes?

Share as a comment & let us all find something we can do in 15 minutes.